Brussels, 11/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - According to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), the wind energy industry could well create more than 250,000 new jobs in Europe by 2020. The belief that wind energy can make an important contribution to green growth in Europe is shared by many politicians from across the political divide. Attending a debate organised in Brussels by EWEA on Wednesday 9 June 2010, the President of the European Socialist Party, former Danish prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, MEP and former Portuguese science minister Maria Da Graça Carvalho (EPP) and European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) advisor Anne Panneels stressed the enormous potential of the wind farm industry.
At the end of 2009, the wind energy industry employed 192,000 people in Europe, and on top of this, thousands of jobs are generated by the European wind farm industry outside the EU. EWEA expects to see a mushrooming of jobs in the industry over the next few years, which could increase the total numbers employed in the industry to 280,000 by 2015 and 450,000 by 2020. 'That's on average 450 new European wind energy jobs per week over the next decade,' explained EWEA chief executive Christian Kjaer. Three key areas for new jobs are offshore wind energy ; electricity grids and training technicians and engineers. Rasmussen said new pilot projects had to be backed in new technology and greater state aid for wind energy was required as a strong potential growth vector. Graça Carvalho focussed on the development of new technical and maintenance skills in R&D and the fact that an economy based on renewable and decentralised energy would create more jobs than an over-rationalised and over-centralised energy system. EWEA says the years to come will see the development of a new off-shore wind energy industry and if the planned projects are brought on-line, offshore wind energy could generate 10% of the energy generated in Europe and create new jobs. Employment in offshore wind energy would then overtake employment on land and soon account for more than 60% of total wind energy. (E.H. trans fl)